Modern North: Architecture on the Frozen Edge

In Modern North ($34), author Julie Decker presents thirty-four of the most compelling and far-ranging possibilities of contemporary architecture in the North. These buildings—located in northern Canada, Scandinavia, and Alaska—are united in the way they embrace extreme conditions. Rather than shut themout, these conditions are welcomed and often formed into the buildings’ structures and materials, as in the way architecture is employed to mediate the harshness of the low-lying sun without replacing it with the harshness of artificial lights.

The architects of Modern North exploit the natural topography to provide visual stimulation in places that sometimes offer little more than a whitescape. Modern North includes innovative institutional and residential structures by both established and up-and-coming architects, including a-lab, David Chipperfield, Jarmund/Vigsnæs, Studio Granda, Shim-Sutcliffe, and Snøhetta.